


Sun Arcs Low

by GotTheSilver



Category: Gifted (Movie 2017)
Genre: Christmas, Family Dynamics, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21808663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GotTheSilver/pseuds/GotTheSilver
Summary: post-movie*Mary comes skipping out of Dr. Farkas’ office on Saturday with a grin on her face, and Frank knows it probably makes him a bad parent that he’s immediately suspicious, but there’s some things he’s learnt by trial and error and Mary being happy after therapy is something he’s never seen before.She climbs into the truck, snapping on her seat belt, and turns to him, still smiling as Frank pulls out onto the street.“You gonna tell me why you’re so happy?” he asks as they set off down the highway.“Dr. Farkas said I’m doing well,” Mary says, pulling at a thread on the hem of her t-shirt.  “And then she gave me candy.”
Relationships: Frank Adler & Mary Adler
Comments: 19
Kudos: 87
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Sun Arcs Low

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tommygirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tommygirl/gifts).



> happy yuletide!

“That’s not a tree,” Mary says, folding her arms and furrowing her brow at the potted Christmas tree Frank’s holding.

“It is too a tree,” Frank says, hauling it up onto the table. It’s a better tree than he thought he’d be able to afford, but after listening to Mary talk about a real tree over Facetime, Evelyn had sent the money for it, and Frank didn’t have the heart to refuse. “We get a bigger tree, the cats are going to drag it down.”

“Fred won’t.”

“Yes, but Fred’s a special cat. Loui and Chili, we don’t know how they’re going to react, we gotta play it safe.” Frank rests his hands on his hips and looks down at Mary, eyebrows raised hopefully. “You okay with that?”

“Do I still get to decorate it?”

“Are you kidding?” Frank leans down and lifts her up, ignoring the twinge in his back that says she’s getting too big for him to do this much longer. “You can decorate it however you want.”

“So we can go shopping?”

Frank groans. “At the weekend, okay? After your session with Dr. Farkas.”

“Do I gotta go?”

“Mary, you know the deal,” Frank says, hitching her up higher as she loops her arms around his neck. “Dr. Farkas needs to know you’re doing okay with the way things are now. And she’s better than the one you had to talk to before, isn’t she?”

“Yes,” Mary says quietly. “But her office smells weird, and she always asks me too many questions.”

“That’s kind of her job,” Frank says, walking over and sitting on the couch, Mary landing on his lap. “She’s gotta ask you questions to make sure you’re okay.”

“Can’t I just tell her I’m okay?”

Frank laughs softly. “You know what? Try it, see what happens.”

*

Mary comes skipping out of Dr. Farkas’ office on Saturday with a grin on her face, and Frank knows it probably makes him a bad parent that he’s immediately suspicious, but there’s some things he’s learnt by trial and error and Mary being happy after therapy is something he’s never seen before.

She climbs into the truck, snapping on her seat belt, and turns to him, still smiling as Frank pulls out onto the street.

“You gonna tell me why you’re so happy?” he asks as they set off down the highway.

“Dr. Farkas said I’m doing well,” Mary says, pulling at a thread on the hem of her t-shirt. “And then she gave me candy.”

“Don’t pull on that,” Frank says, catching the movement out of the corner of his eye. “So you’re happy because you got given sugar?”

“Uh huh.”

“Great,” he says. “At least you won’t get tired walking around Target.”

Mary’s mostly quiet on the drive out, reading a book she shoved in her bag, her mouth moving as she sounds out words she hasn’t yet learnt. Frank’s got Stevie Wonder playing and he’s tapping his fingers against the steering wheel when he feels Mary’s eyes on him. Glancing down at her, he raises an eyebrow. “What?”

“Is Evelyn coming for Christmas?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

“Do you want her to?” Frank asks, making the turn into the parking lot.

“I don’t want to go to Boston,” Mary says. “It looks cold.”

“It is,” Frank says. “Why do you think we’re going to Boston? We’re not going to Boston.”

“Billy said that Christmas is for family.”

Frank sighs as he parks the truck, beating out some douche in a BMW for the spot. Turning the engine off, he looks at Mary as she twists the edge of her t-shirt, her book discarded in the footwell. “Hey,” he says softly. “Look at me. We’re not going anywhere you don’t want to go, okay? Christmas is for family, Billy’s right, but—” he breaks off, tapping his fingers against his thigh. “You know there’s different kinds of families, right? We talked about it when you were younger?”

“Uh huh,” Mary says, her face brightening. “And Alex, she’s got two moms.”

“Okay, so just because we’re not going to go and see Evelyn, doesn’t mean that Christmas won’t be spent with family,” Frank says. “It’ll be you, and me, and the cats. Maybe Roberta if she’s not going to see her sister.”

“Can we ask her when we get home?”

“Sure. If you want, on Christmas Day, you can Facetime Evelyn,” Frank says, making a mental note to talk to Evelyn about it. He’s got absolutely no desire to talk to his mother at Christmas, but she’s eased off slightly since Frank gave her Diane’s solution, and if Mary wants some kind of relationship with her, well. Frank’s got to be part of it, if only to try and protect Mary the way he couldn’t protect Diane. “Okay,” he says, raising an eyebrow at Mary. “Ready to get some decorations?”

*

It’s dark by the time they get back and after they’ve unloaded the groceries along with the decorations, it’s creeping up to Mary’s bedtime.

“But I wanna decorate,” Mary protests as Frank watches her brush her teeth. “Please?”

“Tomorrow, okay? You can wake me up and we’ll decorate.”

“I want to do it now,” Mary says, spitting out the toothpaste foam and glaring at him via the mirror.

“Well that’s not happening,” Frank says, meeting her glare. “Mary, come on.”

“Evelyn would let me decorate.”

“Evelyn would have a tree professionally decorated and never let you near it, now get your ass in bed.”

If anything, Mary’s glare intensifies, like she thinks she can light Frank on fire with the power of her thoughts, and she shoves past him, throwing herself on her bed. Fred jumps up and joins her, butting his head against her shoulder until she curls an arm around him. Frank stands by the bed, feeling useless, and when Mary turns her head to look at him, he sees the tears shining in her eyes.

“Mary—”

“Would she really not let me decorate the tree?” Mary interrupts, her fingers running over Fred’s back. “Did she not let my mom decorate a tree?”

Frank sits on the edge of her bed. “I think you know that Evelyn has a very narrow focus, Mary,” he says carefully. “She likes things done a certain way, and I think your mom wanted to try and keep the peace. So, no, Diane never got to decorate a tree.”

“That’s really sad.”

“It is,” Frank says. “But you know what? That’s never going to happen to you, you’re always going to be able to decorate a tree if you want.”

Mary sniffs, pulling Fred closer to her. “I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” Frank says, ruffling her hair and tucking her in. “Now, go to sleep, okay?”

*

Frank’s barely been asleep for an hour when he’s woken up by Mary crawling into his bed, the thin light coming in through the blinds casts her face in shadow, and he stares at her. “What’s going on?”

“Fred had a nightmare,” she whispers, her eyes wide. “Can we sleep here?”

“What was Fred’s nightmare about?” he asks as Mary settles down, resting her head on a pillow.

“Being taken away,” she says, not meeting his eyes.

“Ah,” Frank says, rolling onto his back and staring up at the ceiling. “Fred knows that’s not going to happen, right? That he’s staying here?”

“He still thinks about it,” Mary says, curling up on her side and touching Frank’s arm. “It scares him.”

“Okay,” Frank says, turning his head to look at her. “You and Fred can sleep in here tonight, but if I wake up with your foot in my face, I get to put the star on the top of the tree.”

“I never did that,” Mary says around a yawn, her face all scrunched up.

“Did too,” Frank says, running a hand over her hair as her eyes close. “When you were a baby, I’d wake up and your foot would be right in my face. Your mom did the same thing when we were kids.”

“M’jus like her,” Mary mumbles.

“You are,” Frank says with a small smile as he watches her drift off. “Just like her.”

*

Frank doesn’t wake up to Mary’s foot in his face, but he does wake up to Fred’s tail flicking over his nose and Mary’s little fist wedged against his kidneys. He can hear Loui and Chili getting into something in the kitchen, and he makes a face, gently pushing Fred’s tail away from his face and getting out of bed. He pauses, watching as Mary shoves her face into the pillow, and he wonders how long she was awake before she came in.

Rubbing a hand over his face, Frank heads out into the kitchen to find Loui batting at an empty cereal box and Chili sitting on the table licking his paws. Scratching Chili on his head as he passes, Frank sets up the coffee pot and switches it on, leaning against the counter. He’s barely finished his first mug of coffee when his phone rings, and he sighs heavily when he sees Evelyn’s name on the screen.

“Evelyn.”

“Frank,” Evelyn says down the line. “We need to talk about the award.”

“The what?”

“For solving the problem. There’s a monetary award, as you know, and by rights it should belong to Mary.”

“And we have to talk about it at this moment?”

“Well, no,” Evelyn says. “I can hear you’ve only just woken up, I merely wanted to set up a time so we could speak about it. Preferably without Mary listening in.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say,” Frank says, part of him wanting to throw the mug against the wall. “If it’s Mary’s money then throw it in a trust, she can have it when she’s old enough.”

“Once again you’ve decided to make a decision with absolutely no forethought, but then I don't know what I—"

“Evelyn," Frank interrupts. "I have to wake Mary up, so either say what you want to say or call back another time.”

“Diane would want her daughter to have somewhere stable to live,” Evelyn says. “You could use some of the money to find somewhere better than that tip you choose to live in.”

Frank puts his mug down and pinches the bridge of his nose. “You _just_ said the money belongs to Mary.”

“Well before that, it belongs to Diane, and Diane would want her daughter to be comfortable.”

“I don’t know what to say to that,” Frank says after a moment. “Look, I really do have to wake Mary up—”

“By all means,” Evelyn says. “I’ll call another time.”

Neither of them say goodbye before hanging up, and Frank stares at the wall, his mind twisting over like it always does whenever he speaks to Evelyn. “Coffee,” he mumbles to himself, pouring out another mug. “Fuck.”

Heading back into his bedroom, he leans against the doorframe, looking at Mary sprawled out sideways across his bed, looking so goddamn small. Frank pushes his feelings about Evelyn down and walks over to the bed, crouching down and brushing his fingers over her hair. “Mary, time to wake up,” he says quietly.

“Fr’nk?” Mary rubs her face against the sheets and opens her eyes slightly. “Why?”

“I mean, I figured you’d want to get those Christmas decorations up, but if not, you can—”

“Yes!” Mary yelps, suddenly very awake. In her haste to get up, her legs get tangled in the sheets, and Fred races off the bed in an attempt to avoid the chaos. “Help?” she asks.

Frank laughs, tugging at the sheet gently until Mary’s uncovered. “You okay there?”

“Can we have bacon?” Mary asks, reaching her arms up and grinning when Frank lifts her up. “Please? It’s Christmas.”

“Are you gonna use that excuse every day until it’s actually Christmas?” Frank asks as he walks towards the bathroom, putting her down on the ground. “Brush your teeth,” he says, reaching for his own toothbrush. “Then we’ll talk about bacon.”

*

The tree ends up covered in more tinsel than it has branches, with baubles that catch the light each time they spin, and Mary puts the star on the top of the tree with a big smile on her face. Frank’s halfway through attaching a group of sparkly reindeer to the wall when Roberta knocks and Mary lets her in.

“Looking very festive,” Roberta says as Mary grabs her hands, pulling her into the room. “You’re crooked, though.”

“They’re reindeer,” Frank says, fixing the last edge to the wall. “They’re frolicking.”

“Frolicking?”

“Yep.”

“Okay then,” Roberta says. “I was wondering if I could ask you both to come and help me put my decorations up? I’ve got a tree that needs some love from Mary here, and I have some Christmas cookies that need eating.”

Frank raises an eyebrow. “Your sister send them?”

“She did.”

“Did she make those cinnamon chocolate pinwheels?” Frank asks hopefully.

“You’re shameful, Frank Adler, but yes, she did,” Roberta says with a smile. “You in?”

“I think I can be persuaded,” Frank says, looking down at Mary bouncing on her toes. “Mary?”

“Cookies!”

Frank laughs. “Do you think we’re done here? Are we Christmassy enough?”

“Well, I think we could have more sparkles,” Mary says. “But it’s okay.”

“You want to go over and start helping Roberta while I clean up here?”

Mary’s eyes go wide. “Really?” she asks. “I don’t have to help clean up?”

“This time,” Frank says, crouching down to eye level with Mary. “But you gotta do something for me, okay? Have some lunch with Roberta before you start in on the cookies.”

Mary nods in agreement and gives Frank a hug, burying her face in his neck and telling him how she’ll save him cookies. When she lets go, Frank gets back to his feet, trying to avoid Roberta’s look. As always with Roberta, he’s unsuccessful, and he sighs, rubbing a hand over his head. “What?”

“You good?” Roberta asks, her voice soft. “Frank?”

“Just gotta call Evelyn, talk some things out. I’ll be over soon.”

“It’s nothing like—” Roberta shoots a look at Mary as she cuts herself off. “I mean, we don’t have to worry about—”

“No,” Frank interrupts hastily. “Nothing like before. Family stuff.”

“Well alright then,” Roberta says, taking Mary’s hand. “Come over when you’re done.”

Despite knowing Mary’s safe with Roberta, Frank doesn’t close his door until he sees them go inside Roberta’s place. He’s still antsy, as much as he knows he has Mary back, that she belongs with him, he still worries, and her nightmares don’t ease those worries any.

Unable to put it off much longer, Frank pulls his phone out and calls Evelyn. It rings endlessly, and he’s just about to hang up when she answers.

“Hello, Frank.”

“Evelyn. I thought we could talk about the money.”

“Come to your senses, have you?”

Frank rolls his eyes, despite knowing she can’t see him. “Careful, Evelyn, your mask is falling,” he says. “What is it you want from me?”

“I want you to decide what to do with the money,” Evelyn says. “For some godforsaken reason you actually like where you live, but Frank, you must know that you’re going to need more space as Mary grows up. I’m sure you’re already tripping over her books.”

“So I’ll get her an e-reader,” Frank says, a sharp smile crossing his face as he hears Evelyn sigh.

“Frank.”

“What do you want me to say, Evelyn? This is the only home she’s ever known. We have friends here. I’m not going to drag her away just because you don’t like where she lives.”

“For pity’s sake, Frank, I’m not saying that you have to leave your little Florida suburb, just upgrade a little, for Mary’s sake.”

“It’s her money.”

“Yes, and you are her guardian. The adult in charge of her life until she turns eighteen.” Evelyn pauses. “Frank, the money comes to you whatever you decide, but you do have to make choices for her to give her the life Diane would’ve wanted her to have.”

“Diane wanted her to be happy.”

“Yes, well, at least you’re managing that.”

Frank raises his eyebrows at the unexpected compliment, and for a moment he’s lost for words. “I—thank you, Evelyn.”

“Talk to Mary,” Evelyn says, her voice slightly softer. “She’s a bright girl, she’ll understand.”

“She’d like to Facetime you on Christmas Day,” Frank says. “If that would be okay.”

“Oh,” Evelyn says, a note of surprise in her tone. “Yes, I’ll make myself available if that’s what she wants.”

Frank ends the call quickly, but not unkindly, and he sits there for a moment, wondering how on earth he’s going to approach the topic with Mary. Maybe he should just steal all the cookies from Roberta to make it easier.

*

Roberta gets him out on a ladder to put up lights on the outside of her home; there’s Christmas music blaring, with both she and Mary singing along as they put decorations on the large plastic tree that Roberta’s been putting up every year since they’ve known her.

When he’s done, he heads inside and finds Mary curled up on the floor with a bunch of cushions and watching The Grinch. Frank stops on his way to the bathroom and watches her, remembering Mary’s first Christmas, how small she’d been, and how he’d been so overwhelmed he hadn’t been able to do much except cook a tv dinner for himself. He’d bought her a Christmas outfit, though, took photos of her in front of the mall tree, and picked up an ornament with ‘My First Christmas’ scrawled across it in glitter. It had seemed like the thing to do at the time. The ornament still goes on the tree every year since.

“Hey,” Roberta says from the kitchen when Frank comes out of the bathroom. “Have a drink with me.”

Frank walks in to see her mixing a hot toddy, and he takes it from her when she hands it over, snagging a couple of cookies from the platter as well. “Is this a bribe?” he asks as he sits at the small table in the kitchen.

“If you say she’s not being taken away, I believe you.”

Taking a sip of his drink, enjoying the soothing warmth of the whiskey and honey, Frank nods slowly. “That math problem Diane solved? There’s a reward for it.”

“How much?”

“A lot,” Frank says, popping a cookie into his mouth. “Evelyn says it’s Diane’s and that means it belongs to Mary’s, but Evelyn—she wants me to use the money to move out. For Mary. Keeps saying it’s what Diane would want.”

“What do you think?” Roberta asks, taking the seat opposite him. “Is it what Diane would want?”

“I don’t know,” Frank says. “She’d want Mary to be happy, but Mary is happy here. This is the only place she’s ever called home, and after what just happened, I can’t rip her away from that.”

“Lord, at least I know Mary comes by her dramatics honestly,” Roberta says. “Frank, you don’t have to leave. You want a better place, I can find you a better place. I’m amazed you stayed in that one for so long, truth be told.”

“Burnt through what savings I had the first year of looking after Mary,” Frank says, clutching the mug. “Had some money from Diane, but—”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”

Leaning back, Frank shakes his head. “I don’t know what to do,” he says. “I don’t want to make her move if she doesn’t want to.”

“Talk to her,” Roberta says. “She’s smart enough for you to have this conversation with her.”

“That’s what Evelyn said,” Frank says with a soft laugh.

“Well you should listen to one of us,” Roberta says with a smile. “And I won’t tell you which one.”

Frank laughs at that, and the noise brings Mary in, holding one of Roberta’s blankets in her hand, her brow furrowed as she looks at them. “What’s so funny?” she asks, reaching for a cookie.

“Roberta just said a funny thing,” Frank says. “You bored of the movie?”

“It’s finished,” Mary says around a mouthful of cookie. “What’re we gonna do now?”

“If you put your coat and shoes back on, I was thinking we go for a walk, look and see if we can spot some cool Christmas lights?”

“Is Roberta coming?”

“I’ve got some things to do,” Roberta says as Mary gives her a hug. “But are we still on for our annual Christmas outing?”

“Yes!”

“Okay,” Frank says. “Go get your things and we’ll get out of Roberta’s hair.”

*

“Look at those ones!” Mary points across the street at the inflatable snowmen in someone’s yard.

“Closest thing we’ll get to snow down here,” Frank says, holding her hand. “You like those?”

“Uh huh. The sparkly reindeer with the sleigh were better, though.”

“Oh, of course.”

They carry on walking, Mary’s little hand in his as they pass by people putting up their decorations. Eventually, they hit the water, and Frank stops, looking out at the sun slowly setting. Mary tugs on his hand, her feet climbing their way up his leg. “Frank?”

“Yeah, kiddo?”

“What’s going on? Do I have to go away again?”

“No,” Frank says quickly, hauling her up and holding her close, walking over to the bench. “You’re not having to go away, but we do have to talk about something. You want to do it here or at home?”

“Here,” Mary says with a shrug. “The sun is pretty.”

“It is,” Frank agrees as they approach the bench. “You like living here, right?”

“Yep. I get to see Roberta whenever I want, and the cats like it as well.”

Frank smiles at Mary as he adjusts his hold on her so he can sit down with her. “Okay, so. The math problem your mom solved? There’s a prize for it.”

“What kind of prize? Candy?”

Laughing, Frank brushes Mary’s hair out of her face. “No, not candy. It’s money, it’s a lot of money, and Evelyn says it belongs to you because it would’ve been your mom’s prize. Evelyn, she wants us to use it to move.”

“To Boston?”

“No, no, we’ll stay here,” Frank says. “But maybe somewhere bigger? If you want to.”

“Would I still get to see Roberta?” Mary asks, kicking her legs back and forth, her heels bashing against Frank’s shins. “Where would we live?”

“Yes, you’d still get to see Roberta, and I don’t know where we’d live,” Frank says, catching Mary’s legs and holding them still. “I wanted to talk to you about it, so that we could decide together. Mary, it’s your money, if you want to stay where we’re living now then that’s okay.”

“But it was really mom’s money,” Mary says quietly. “She did the work, didn’t she?”

“She did.”

Mary goes silent, looking out at the water, wrapping a hand around Frank’s index finger. “I think maybe we should look,” she says eventually.

“Yeah?”

“Not until after Christmas,” she says. “And if I don’t want to move then—”

“Then we don’t,” Frank says, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Promise.” The sun’s casting a golden light over them as they watch it go down, and Frank sits back against the bench, enjoying the peace. Mary’s still got his hand, tracing patterns across it as they sit there, and Frank wonders what she’s thinking, if she even realises the weight of the decision sitting on her shoulders. “You okay?” he asks, tapping the fingers of his other hand against her arm.

“Do you miss mom?”

“Yeah,” Frank says honestly. “I do, a lot.”

“What did she like doing at Christmas?”

Frank pauses for a moment, thinking about it. “She liked being indoors with the fire,” he says eventually, memories of things he hasn’t let himself think about in a long time coming flooding back. “It snowed a lot one Christmas, so we couldn’t go anywhere, and Evelyn couldn’t have people over, but Diane didn't mind, she just curled up her favourite chair with a book and watched the fire.”

“That sounds nice.”

“Yeah,” Frank says, brushing her hair back off her face. “It was.”

“I like my Christmases with you,” Mary says. “I wish mom was here as well, but I like us.”

“Well, I like my Christmases with you as well,” Frank says. “What do you say we go home and have some hot cocoa and watch a movie?”

Mary turns to look at him. “Really?”

“Sure,” Frank says, even though he knows it’ll be late by the time the movie finishes. “It’s Christmas.”

*

Mary ends up falling asleep on him before Home Alone is even halfway through, but Frank lets the movie play on; there’s two empty sticky mugs of hot cocoa on the table, a bag of mini marshmallows open and half spilling out on the surface, and Frank should get up and put it away, but he can’t bring himself to do so.

The cats are curled up with them, Loui a lazy weight on his legs, Fred resting his head on Mary’s arm, and Chili with his tail curling around Frank’s feet. Lights from the tree are flickering in a pattern Frank can’t hope to decipher, and the feeling in his chest is one of complete contentment.

“Fr’nk?” Mary mumbles against his shirt, rubbing her nose against it. “S’bed?”

“We’re being held captive by the cats,” Frank whispers, smiling when he feels Mary giggle. “You want me to carry you?” he asks, gently nudging the cats off him.

“Uh huh.”

“You gotta brush your teeth, though,” Frank says, easing an arm underneath her legs as he sits up, and cradling her to his chest. “All that chocolate we had today.”

Mary nods, blinking slowly. “Movie?”

“We’ll finish it another day,” he says, standing up and walking towards the bathroom. Narrowly avoiding bumping her head against the doorframe, Frank puts her down in the bathroom and gets her toothbrush ready, handing it to her and watching with a hand on her shoulder as she brushes her teeth. Her eyes are drooping again by the time she’s done, and Frank lifts her up, carrying her over to her bed where Fred is already waiting. Tugging back the covers, Frank puts her down carefully and tucks her in, smiling as Fred curls up with her. He runs his fingers over her hair, tapping her gently on the nose. “Sleep well, Mary,” he whispers. “Merry Christmas.”


End file.
